Sao Paulo projects....

In January of this year I joined the St. Andrews Scottish Society of Brasil. It is a fantastic group of expats and Brasilians who are eager to promote Scottish culture in Brasil, dance a bit, drink a lot, and generally have fun while raising cash for charity. This society urged me to join up with the Canadian Women's group here in order to build relationships, and I eventually and somewhat reluctantly did. I decided to get involved with one of their charity projects. Here is the building which contains the project I am working on:

It is a community centre in one of the larger favelas (slums) in Morumbi. Morumbi also happens to be where many of the super-wealthy and well-connected people of Sao Paulo live. The location of this centre, however, does not see that kind of traffic. I was stunned to find out on the day of my first meeting that as elections are coming up (in fact they are next weekend), the local government has forceably taken away ALL funding the centre had been given to operate. They are a crucial part of the local community, providing health care, dental care, a soup kitchen, as well as classes and other necessities such as a barber etc. The Canadian group had secured funds to open a library there, and this is what I am helping out with:

A girl from the neighborhood has been hired to help and works 20 hours a week for the royal sum of 175 US$ per month. Just think about that. Kind of puts it all in perspective, doesn't it? But where will her job be and where will the community go for the basics if the government does not re-instate the funding? A grim thought. Updates to follow post-election....